{"id":20948,"date":"2025-01-16T09:20:43","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T14:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/?p=20948"},"modified":"2025-11-19T15:08:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T20:08:23","slug":"kevin-harris-talks-jazz-piano-pan-african-music-and-the-african-influenced-method","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/kevin-harris-talks-jazz-piano-pan-african-music-and-the-african-influenced-method\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Harris Talks Jazz Piano, Pan-African Music, and the African-Influenced Method"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-cultural-roots-and-the-african-influenced-method-shape-how-kevin-harris-approaches-jazz-piano\">How Cultural Roots and the African-Influenced Method Shape How Kevin Harris Approaches Jazz Piano<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Jazz pianist Kevin Harris says his greatest desire is to constantly grow, evolve, improve, and advance. This passion and eagerness for learning stems back to his childhood, where he had his first and most influential music education, in a gospel church in Lexington, Kentucky.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He says that what he learned from that experience is that if we want to excel at a musical instrument, we must enthusiastically, rigorously, and repetitiously immerse ourselves in an environment where that skill is not just taught and understood, but continually experienced. For many people who have grown up in and around the Pan-African influenced culture, this participatory process of learning music is a given, be it groove, ornamenting a melody, or simply expanding notated music to sound more soulful.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Berklee Online course he authored, <em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/courses\/advanced-jazz-piano?campaign_id=7010Z000001ZkQgQAK&amp;pid=&amp;utm_source=takenote&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=bol-gen-takenote-link-from-article\" target=\"_blank\">Advanced Jazz Piano<\/a><\/em>, Harris explores the jazz repertoire through the lens of the African-Influenced Method (AIM). Using African American musical traditions as his backdrop, he guides his students through core elements of jazz music, dissecting harmony, melody, rhythm, and movement. Each week students study a different artist who has contributed to the evolution of jazz piano, learning about their lives and the innovative techniques that made these artists so revolutionary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading long-title\" id=\"h-could-you-talk-about-your-experience-growing-up-going-to-church-and-experiencing-gospel-music-and-how-that-influenced-you\"><strong>Could you talk about your experience growing up, going to church, and experiencing gospel music, and how that influenced you?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A lot of times in academia, we learn that, \u201coh, you\u2019re going to major in music,\u201d \u201cyou\u2019re going to major in dance,\u201d or \u201cyou\u2019re going to major in singing.\u201d Often these are viewed as separate things, but I consider myself quite fortunate, not only musically, but culturally, that those are connected. From a Pan-African culture perspective and many African languages, there\u2019s no difference between the word \u201cdance\u201d and the word \u201csinging.\u201d They overlap a lot.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky. That\u2019s home for me, and I continued my undergraduate studies in Kentucky. But my upbringing in church was that every choir rehearsal as a kid\u2014every Sunday experience, every Wednesday experience\u2014was about being able to experience [this overlap of music, singing, and dancing].&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another thing I would say about the importance of just me being able to prioritize my own upbringing in this particular course is that there\u2019s an overlap in music culture. When we have the sacred, in my case, Black gospel music and more of the secular, whether it be funk, pop, Motown, the list goes on of Pan-African influence music in America, they overlap. If you go back to the great Thomas Dorsey who wrote over 400 blues songs, but at the same time wrote very well-known Black gospel music like \u201cPrecious Lord,\u201d so many people sing that in church. Then you have this overlap over and over again. You have Ray Charles, who pioneered a lot of American soul, R&amp;B, but at the same time comes from a Black gospel background. Aretha Franklin, again, coming from a Black gospel background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The third thing I appreciate about my background is the connection I feel with Pan-African culture, especially through its rhythms and harmonic approaches. For example, when you listen to Scott Joplin\u2019s \u201cMaple Leaf Rag,\u201d you can hear a very distinct clave rhythm that also appears in Cuban music. This overlap is almost profound. <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Advanced Jazz Piano: Course Overview | Kevin Harris | African-Influenced Method | Black Gospel Music\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hf0tWHt2Pck?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><br><strong>In this lively animation from Berklee Online\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/courses\/advanced-jazz-piano?campaign_id=7010Z000001ZkQgQAK&amp;pid=&amp;utm_source=takenote&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=bol-gen-takenote-link-from-article\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Advanced Jazz Piano<\/a> <\/em>course, author Kevin Harris discusses his first and most influential music education, Black gospel music culture in Lexington, Kentucky. <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading long-title\" id=\"h-describe-what-you-call-the-african-influenced-method-aim-and-how-you-approach-it-in-your-own-music\"><strong>Describe what you call the African Influenced Method (AIM) and how you approach it in your own music?<\/strong><br><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>So the concept itself, African Influenced Method has been something I\u2019ve been teaching for over 20 years. I\u2019ve been teaching in an array of different settings, sometimes it\u2019s a group lesson, or a private lesson, or it\u2019s a masterclass. So over time, what I\u2019ve come to really prioritize and also appreciate is that students not only enjoy the nuts and bolts, reading the notes on the page, but also understanding the culture and the cultural ways of learning music or anything in that regard. It\u2019s great to have an approach to learning music that goes beyond just the notes on the page. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><br><strong>\u00a0It\u2019s great to have an approach to learning music that goes beyond just the notes on the page.\u00a0<\/strong><br><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>This method that I work with starts off just by understanding the concept. Say for instance, we\u2019re checking out the music of the great Mary Lou Williams, a jazz pianist that embodies early styles of jazz piano from stride all the way up to boogie woogie, rock \u2019n\u2019 roll. She just does it all, I mean bad to the bone. She\u2019s the very first pianist we look at in my class. So in incorporating this particular method, we look at one piece every single week. We just take one piece from one different piano player, and we look at different concepts, but we don\u2019t just say, \u201cWell, there it is! Here\u2019s a blues lick, good luck.\u201d We say: \u201cHere\u2019s a blues lick that she played. What\u2019s the context? Now let\u2019s sing it. Don\u2019t touch the piano yet. Let\u2019s sing it. Let\u2019s clap to it. Let\u2019s move our bodies to it, get it in our blood and our bones.\u201d Many cultures say these things because they are important. Otherwise, when we finally sit down at a piano or any instrument, where\u2019s the feeling? Where\u2019s the ability to lock up with other people in the band? How do you lock up with them if there\u2019s no kind of cultural importance there? And that\u2019s what it\u2019s all coming back to. I\u2019m trying to get to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading long-title\" id=\"h-when-in-your-life-did-you-first-encounter-the-specific-teachings-of-aim\"><strong>When in your life did you first encounter the specific teachings of AIM?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The African influence method I think is something that I would say over time teaching, I\u2019ve noticed some things that have just been a little bit more successful. For example, trying to teach, \u201cfeel,\u201d \u201cswing,\u201d a funk groove, even solo piano that just kind of grooves and settles in the pocket and feels good. I\u2019ve noticed that the less I talk about it or just provide sheet music instead, give the students something to play along with but also going back to that whole language cultural thing that they can imitate, works so much easier. So that method is something that\u2019s developed over time. It wasn\u2019t necessarily something that was taught to me as a method by someone else, but just me thinking about culturally how I came up, how other four- or five-year-old drummers and piano players, and a lot of Black gospel churches there are very similar in parallels. Young four- and five-year-old kids can easily learn a language. It\u2019s very similar with music; it\u2019s just another language.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><br><strong>\u00a0Young four- and five-year-old kids can easily learn a language. It\u2019s very similar with music; it\u2019s just another language. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>You know what else is interesting about that is, and it\u2019s definitely related to this concept in my opinion, is that usually if you talk to someone, and maybe you\u2019ve been studying Spanish or Italian or Swahili or Mandarin, and you meet someone, you\u2019ve been practicing that language for a while, you can tell where a person is from that grew up in that culture, and you can tell when someone may have an accent or maybe they can tell where this person is from the north and that person is from the south. That\u2019s all very relevant because when we teach and learn music, that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing. What you would do on a C major 7th chord because you\u2019ve been checking out lots of Jerry Allen and what I would do on a C major 7th chord, because I\u2019ve been checking out lots of Herbie Hancock is going to be different, but they\u2019re both C major 7th chords. Again, it becomes very much like an oral tradition, but it\u2019s also in many ways relating to that cultural element of how we learn languages too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading long-title\" id=\"h-you-have-also-studied-music-from-the-western-classical-perspective-are-there-aspects-of-that-education-that-you-choose-to-keep-in-your-lessons-and-are-there-aspects-you-try-to-get-away-from\"><strong>You have also studied music from the Western classical perspective. Are there aspects of that education that you choose to keep in your lessons, and are there aspects you try to get away from?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>With most music, especially at great institutions like Berklee, a majority of the music is notated when you teach a concept, although I would argue it is just as relevant if you learn it by the oral tradition too. As a matter of fact, I can think of situations where it\u2019s much better to teach it by the oral tradition, but because things are notated, some students just soak up the information a little bit better when it\u2019s notated.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s how we communicate with each other, so it\u2019s important. So in that sense, yes, obviously I expect them to be able to read. It\u2019s technically an advanced jazz piano course, so we don\u2019t discuss a lot of \u201cwhat is a Dorian scale?\u201d or \u201chow can I read this passage?\u201d It\u2019s just kind of up to them to be able to do that. So I would say that a lot of those basics that a person would learn in fundamental piano playing doesn\u2019t necessarily have to be classical music. If you think about it, there\u2019s advanced jazz piano playing that\u2019s not classical, where you can still learn pretty good technique. A majority of it tends to be classical, because that\u2019s just kind of the fundamentals for a lot of cultures around the world. When I say classical, I\u2019m talking about Western classical. Obviously there\u2019s Indian classical music, there\u2019s Asian classical music. \u2026 So even that being the case, yes, I do bring a lot of those elements that I learned Western classical music to the classes as well.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading long-title\" id=\"h-throughout-all-of-history-we-ve-been-borrowing-stuff-from-each-other-but-do-you-think-there-is-a-line-where-it-turns-into-cultural-appropriation\"><strong>Throughout all of history we\u2019ve been borrowing stuff from each other, but do you think there is a line where it turns into cultural appropriation?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah. I\u2019m glad you asked this question because people need to be asking it. It\u2019s very important. My answer is going to be simplified. I think that type of question deserves a lot of discussion because there\u2019s a lot of nuances to it. I\u2019m basically looking for\u2014and I\u2019m not just talking about Black music, I\u2019m not just talking about Pan-African influence music\u2014a form of respect toward the culture. If someone says, \u201chere\u2019s this type of music, I\u2019m going to sing like this. I\u2019m going to dance like this and do everything else, but it is not influenced by Pan-African-influenced music at all. It\u2019s not African. It doesn\u2019t come from the States. This is totally my own.\u201d Then I disagree. I just completely disagree, and I think a lot of people would argue that it\u2019s some pretty dangerous territory, but the majority of the people I know who have done their homework and know where it comes from in a respectful way, say, \u201cyeah, it comes from here.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/faculty\/kevin-harris?campaign_id=7010Z000001ZkQgQAK&amp;pid=&amp;utm_source=takenote&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=bol-gen-takenote-link-from-article\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"STUDY JAZZ PIANO WITH KEVIN HARRIS (opens in a new tab)\">STUDY JAZZ PIANO WITH KEVIN HARRIS<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the same thing goes for if there\u2019s a food that you eat that\u2019s been influenced by a phenomenal dish that you discovered in Mexico City, then you need to say that out loud. I mean, you can\u2019t just call it your own. You can\u2019t just tweak it a little bit and then call it your own. To me, to answer your question, is to say out loud where it comes from. Respect that culture when you\u2019re passing it on, talk about it, put it in your history books or put it in your academic books or whatever. As you\u2019re passing it on, just say something about it and it becomes much more acceptable to me. Maybe \u201cacceptable\u201d is the wrong word, because there are so many layers to it, of course, but it\u2019s very important hearing, knowing, feeling that respect of the culture, no matter who it is, no matter what the culture or the tradition is.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading long-title\" id=\"h-have-you-had-students-coming-from-more-classical-backgrounds-having-more-difficulty-engaging-with-jazz-piano-or-some-of-them-maybe-even-being-like-you-totally-changed-my-perspectives-on-this\"><strong>Have you had students coming from more classical backgrounds having more difficulty engaging with jazz piano, or some of them maybe even being like \u201cYou totally changed my perspectives on this!\u201d?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah. I do have more students in my class that come from a Western classical background who are just coming up. Maybe they\u2019ve already experienced music, primarily learning by ear. And to answer your question, a majority of those students\u2014after practicing and with this method specifically of just moving and talking and singing along with the phrases before they start playing them\u2014they do tell me how much of a benefit that is. Not that they\u2019re not used to dancing and singing. Almost all of us do that when we\u2019re kids. We grow up singing whatever. But the continuation of that, especially those who kind of grew up with the Western classical background, they grow up somehow being convinced that what they do is \u201cserious music\u201d and everything else is not, which is a big problem. I\u2019m just going to say that you would think one, music being Western classical music is serious and the others aren\u2019t. At a school like Berklee, we\u2019re not really using a lot of that terminology at all, which I can appreciate. But those students, as they kind of experience the music, and dance, and sing, they realize how much of a reawakening of what they already have in them is there. And I think the beautiful thing about Pan-African culture is as you continue to play, even when you become elementary, junior high, high school, professional musicians, that never really goes away. That connectedness of this music is to move to, it\u2019s to dance to, it\u2019s to cry to. Again, several cultures have this all over the world, but because that\u2019s the way I grew up, and that\u2019s again, a cultural foundation for so much of the music that is studied at Berklee, it\u2019s just very important that I talk about that. That\u2019s why I\u2019m proud of just being able to share that method for me.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading long-title\" id=\"h-what-have-you-learned-from-the-experience-of-teaching-advanced-jazz-piano\"><strong>What have you learned from the experience of teaching <\/strong><em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/courses\/advanced-jazz-piano?campaign_id=7010Z000001ZkQgQAK&amp;pid=&amp;utm_source=takenote&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=bol-gen-takenote-link-from-article\" target=\"_blank\">Advanced Jazz Piano<\/a><\/em><strong>?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that I\u2019ve been teaching the course for a few semesters, I noticed that first of all, there\u2019s students from all parts of the world, and many times they are just learning how to groove, and how to find this groove. They can read the notes on the page just fine, but just being able to groove and feel like, \u201coh, wow, that funk groove or even that odd meter groove, I now have a better idea of what that\u2019s supposed to feel like.\u201d And to me, that\u2019s very important, but you can\u2019t put into words what something is supposed to really feel like until you just do it. So that has been a very good feeling when students write me during the third, fourth, or fifth week and go, \u201coh, this is really settling in. I had no idea that that\u2019s what you were trying to convey, but now I get it,\u201d and then in week six, week seven, week eight, and week nine, going on, it just kind of locks in.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s an importance to, \u201cwow beyond the notes on the page, this is what this is supposed to feel like.\u201d Probably more importantly though, is knowing that once the class is over, they\u2019ll be able to go on and record, perform, do sessions, rehearse with other people, just having the most important priority of locking in rhythm, knowing that that\u2019s important. Instead of thinking, \u201coh, I got the notes. I understand the harmony, I\u2019ll be fine.\u201d No, no, no. They now understand the priority of locking in and all the notes and harmonies go on top of that. So yeah, it\u2019s been a truly great experience doing this online. <br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The author of Berklee Online\u2019s <em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Advanced Jazz Piano (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/courses\/advanced-jazz-piano?campaign_id=7010Z000001ZkQgQAK&#038;pid=&#038;utm_source=takenote&#038;utm_medium=blog&#038;utm_campaign=bol-gen-takenote-link-from-article\" target=\"_blank\">Advanced Jazz Piano<\/a><\/em> course says growing up in Kentucky and singing in the church helped him develop an emphasis on teaching students that the best way to understand music is not just to study it, but to dance, clap, and sing to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":20950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,9564,35,9572,9560],"tags":[9423,9422,9424,6633,9420,9428,1186,9427,9426],"class_list":["post-20948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-features-articles","category-instructor-profiles","category-piano-and-keyboard-articles","category-spotlight","tag-african-influenced-method","tag-aim","tag-gospel","tag-herbie-hancock","tag-jazz-piano","tag-jerry-allen","tag-ray-charles","tag-scott-joplin","tag-thomas-dorsey"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.8 (Yoast SEO v25.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Kevin Harris Talks Jazz Piano, Pan-African Music, and the African-Influenced Method -<\/title>\n<meta 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